Brocade SAN Glossary for Fabric OS v6.0.0

Brocade SAN Glossary 1/29/2008 Page 15 of 29
K
K28.5 A special 10-bit character used to indicate the beginning of a Fibre Channel
ordered set.
KAT Known Answer Test. Used for encryption and decryption operations in FIPS
compliance. See also FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard).
Key A string of data (usually a numeric value) shared between two entities and
used to control a cryptographic algorithm.
Key pair In public key cryptography, a pair of keys consisting of an entity’s public and
private key; the public key can be publicized, but the private key must be
kept secret.
L
L_Port Loop Port. A node port (NL_Port) or fabric port (FL_Port) that has arbitrated-
loop capabilities
LAN Local Area Network. A network where transmissions are typically less than
5 km (3.4 mi).
Latency The period that a frame is held by a network device before it is forwarded.
LED Light Emitting Diode. A status indicator on a switch.
Link control facility A termination handling physical and logical control of the Fibre Channel link
for each mode.
LIFA Loop Initialization Fabric Assigned frame. Contains bitmap of all fabric
assigned AL_PAs and is the first frame transmitted in the loop initialization
process after a temporary loop master has been selected.
LIHA Loop Initialization Hard Assigned frame. A hard assigned AL_PA that is
indicated by a bit set and is the third frame transmitted in the loop
initialization process after a temporary loop master has been selected.
LILP Loop Initialization Loop Position frame. The final frame transmitted in a loop
initialization process. A returned LIRP contains an accumulation of all of the
AL_PA position maps. This allows loop members to determine their relative
loop position. This is an optional frame and is not transmitted unless the
LIRP is also transmitted.
Link A bi-directional point-to-point serial data channel.
Link control facility A termination, handling physical and logical control of the FC link for each
node.
Link cost A dimensionless positive number associated with the cost of an ISL or IFL
that, by default, is inversely proportional to its bandwidth.
LIP Loop Initialization Primitive sequence. A means to get an AL_PA address, to
indicate a loop failure or to reset a node.
LIPA Loop Initialization Previously Assigned. A situation in which the device marks
a bit in the bitmap if it had not logged in with the fabric in a previous loop
initialization.